(no subject)

[mayoraasei]

I'm really not up-to-date on the gaming industry. Electronic Arts? What sort of things has it released?

Someone posted this up on the forum. I thought it sounded pretty horrific. Read it, if you ever thought about going into the gaming industry. Or indeed, if you ever supported the gaming industry...

The entry that started it
Response of someone who knows how to manage projects

I just noticed that her entry was really new, and it has already received a lot of responses.

News on what's been done about the problem

Comments

[jezjezjezza.livejournal.com]

gah, livejournal didn't post my comment up :/

ah well, the gist of the post (bah, I've prolly forgotten it though =__=) was "whoa."

anything to do with software seems to be hideously time consuming or ..well, hideous. :/ *remembers software last semester* *thinks about stuff that poor software students go through*

[sindaalphiel.livejournal.com]

Oh dear.. Tony?

Chen.

[scoie.livejournal.com]

EA are one of the biggest publishers of computer games today, they ship titles in pretty much every catagory in existance. Car racing, Sport, First Person Shooters, to name but a few (Need for Speed, NBL , Battlefied 1942 respectivly for some examples).

This is exactly what it seems, a horror story from the trenches. Its true, but its not a picture of the entire industry. Like the second link suggests this does not have to be the case, and in many occasions its more counter-productive than anything else.

Let me tell a little story from personal experience this semester. Three projects were started all at the same time by people going into this industry. One team put in a steady effort from beginning to end, another did bits and pieces as they saw fit to do, and another did a steady effort but aimed high. The first and Third project were ready without any hassles at the due date, the Thrid required a 'push' towards the end, a late night here and there, but it got there. The Second project had two allnighters the two nights before the due date, and the team was still working on it at the very last moment... This paints a picture i have seen in many articles and talking to some reps from the industry. Some companies put in steady effort, and aim for the reachable, others put in the effort, but aim a little higher, striving for an increases excellence, and some just have no idea when it comes to project management! To quote the second link "death marches are almost never necessary". Thats assuming proper project management.

Thats my rant on it anyway, i think with proper management, and a good team anything is possible without marching your team into the ground. Anything else is just plain stupid, i mean these teams have to work on other projects later, and by EA's current methods, they would move straight onto a new project, not only is that plain stupid, its going to cause more problems than it fixes, and if anything increase the time needed to complete the project. Even programmers need sleep, even if they are nocturnal!

[scoie.livejournal.com]

Argh, sorry about the rant peoples...